HE LOVES IRONTON, OHIO – The man with snow-white hair like Santa Claus, whom we met standing with a cane on the sidewalk at the old Marlow Theatre corner, is a gentleman who truly loves Ironton, now living at the Hotel Marting…He is one of the most interesting gentlemen we have had a chat with for a month on Tuesdays.
Former Irontonian Alfred Turney left this city in 1916 and, after an absence of half a century, returned to see what his birthplace looked like…He saw the Beautiful Ohio, where he learned to swim when a boy jumping from the log raft at Fearon saw mill…He registered in a room at the hotel, with a window overlooking the river a few weeks ago and is now a permanent guest there.
Mr. Turney was born in this city 72 years ago when his father, Edward C. Turney, was superintendent at the Belfont Nail Mill cooper shop…he attended school here and learned to make nail kegs…His father was transferred to Cleveland and he accompanied the family to that city where he lost his limb in a traffic accident when a truck of kegs was hit by a street car.
That was in 1917…After getting an artificial limb he learned the barber trade and operated his own shop in Lake Erie city where he retired in 1959…Since then his hobby has been stamp collecting which has been profitable…Several citizens, including this writer, remember Mr. Turney’s father Edward when at Belfont…He was a member of the Spanish-American War military band which took part in all street parades for a number of years, especially the Apple Show in 1914…At that time he was the manager for T. H. B. Jones at the Princess Skating Rink, a night-time extra job…The family then lived at Third and Neal Ave.
Alfred’s younger brother, Edward Turney, also born in Ironton, went to Louisville, where in 1933 he was the finance director under President Roosevelt for the state WPA program, an appointment that took him to Washington where he lived at Silver Springs, Md…
At this point, this columnist enters the story in a circumstantial manner… “I have your autograph in my stamp collection,” said the man who loves Ironton, and when we visited his room, sure enough, it was on an envelope known as a “first-day cover”…
At Sliver Springs, Md. the neighbor across the street, knowing Mr. Turney was a stamp collector and a former Irontonian, gave him the envelope of the Ironton Centennial celebration mailed August 3, 1949, with my handwriting…The souvenir had been mailed by me to that neighbor, Clifton C. Garner, chief post office inspector at Washington, D.C…We just don’t run into stories like that but once in a lifetime…
Ironton is one of only 28 cities in the nation that was granted the use of a special postal die advertising a city-wide event on the postal canceling machine…Alfred married an Ironton lady, the former Mary Thirkildson, his second wife, who now lives with their daughter and grandson in Cleveland…Her mother, Mrs. Martha Thirkildson, had a flower shop in the Masonic Temple at the time the building was destroyed by fire in 1915.
Hello, Bill – Pine Grove will be back on the map on September 11 when the 28th annual stag picnic of Ironton Lodge 177 B.P.O. Elks, will be held at St. Mary’s Grove…The picnic grounds at St. Mary’s Catholic Church is the oldest known amusement park in Lawrence County…The church and cemetery were established on the hill there in 1828…Shortly thereafter the Iron railroad was built in 1849 connecting Ironton with the charcoal pig iron furnaces north of the river and the first Fourth of July picnic was advertised in 1853 at Pine Grove…The new railroad, using flat cars, and operated excursion trains to serve the pleasure-seeking public made the place very popular.
Those excursions continued and square dancing was the main attraction at the all-day picnics on Memorial Day, the Fourth, and Labor Day until folk drove their own model “T” cars…Since the Rev. John C. Jackson became rector at St. Mary’s and many fraternal orders have held picnics, a recreational building of huge size has been erected for weather protection, and should Jupiter Pluvius attend, the fun is not interrupted…The Elks come from three states and half a dozen lodges to attend when “Old 177” has a picnic.
Written by Charles Collettt
Huntington Newspaper – May 26, 1966
0 Comments